b'His vision became reality in 1924 when the 4th Marines moved to a brand-new base built on muddy Dutch Flats on the rim of San Diego harbor.Pendleton, by then a brigadier general, officiated at the dedication of Marine Corps Base, San Diego.Today, we know it as Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego.By the mid-1930s, the Marines at the San Diego barracks, pinched by their own expansion as well as by growth in the surrounding civilian community, began to seek new training areas.Initially they focused on available nearby land in La Jolla and Kearny Mesa. However, by 1939, with war clouds building and the nation moving steadily toward a war footing, they needed more even space.In September 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a limited national emergency, which gave the military certain powers to acquire civilian land for national defense needs. Energized by this new authority, Maj. Gen.While the Marine Corps demurred, the Army entered the Clayton B. Vogel, Commanding General, Fleet Marine picture in early 1941.Army planners envisioned the ranch as Forces, San Diego, appointed a commission to find new a training base for an armored division. An important point training areas. in the Armys negotiations with the owners was the method While the Marine Corps was seeking a solution to itsof transferpurchase or lease?Members of the Flood need for more land, the owners of the vast Rancho Santafamily, most of whom lived near San Francisco, preferred Margarita y Las Flores in northern San Diego County were to sell. The ONeills, whose family had managed the ranch in a quandary. Their holding was enormous, extending operations over the years, wanted to lease, leaving open the from Oceanside north some 20 miles along the Pacificpossibility of eventually regaining control once the war crisis Ocean then bending northeastward well beyond San Juanended. Negotiations continued into the fall until the Army Capistranomore than 200,000 acres. finally decided the steep canyons and hills on the ranch were The dilemma facing the owners was: What to do with unsuitable for training armored units that might have to fight the property? Since 1882, when James C. Flood and in North Africa or the plains of Central Europe.Richard ONeill had formed an enduring partnership toThe Marine Corps measured approach to preparing for purchase and manage the ranch, it had become one of thewar changed dramatically on Dec. 7, 1941. In response to the largest and most prosperous in California. The partnershipJapanese attack on Pearl Harbor and President Roosevelts outlasted the original patriarchs, carried on by their sonsrequest, Congress declared war on the Japanese Empire. A James C. Flood Jr. and Jerome ONeill. second War Powers Act soon followed, giving the federal But now these men were gone too, having died in government greater power to seize private property for the 1926 within one day of each other. The estate had war effort.The Marine Corps moved quickly to build the passed to an assortment of heirs in both families,infrastructure needed to support its assigned role in the who faced an age-old question: Should theyPacific Theater. The Santa Margarita y Las Flores Ranch, no continue to run the ranch, sell it and longer in the Armys sights, became its primary target.go about their respective lives, or .continued on page 24divide it among themselves?While they wrestled with thesequestions, the property remainedunder the custodial care of a bank.General Vogels commissionconsidered the southernmost70,000 acres of Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores as a possible Marine training area in 1939. Although it was attractive, the commissionconcluded it was too far from San Diego and recommended instead that the Marine Corps acquire more land closer to home near La Jolla and Kearny Mesa. The commission revisited the issue the following year, but, citing its remotelocation and the expected development cost, again recommended against it.Thank You For Your Service Military Appreciation Resource Magazine 23'